No. Nothing about them excites me, the massive influx of tourists, the fact that the tube will be rammed, the fact that half of the roads that we as the tax paying public pay to maintain will be closed and therefore will be jammed solid for 2 months or so, or the fact that we as tax payers paid to build all these arenas that will probably be used for a few months and then either fall into disrepair or being propped at more expense to avoid the government losing face so that a few swimmers and cyclists can use a "world class venue" to practise in.

Wow, you two are a bundle of laughs. Biggest sporting event in the World not only coming to my City but coming to my part of that City..fantastic. Can anyone deny the improvements that have been made in what was always the arse hole of London?...Come on East London, its our Olympics, lets show the World what we can do. Greatest City in the World.

neilbob wrote:I'm excited for the event, but deeply worried that it's going to be a month of having the elitism of the corporate world shoved down my throat. I turned down a gamesmaker post for that reason.

funny, you get people on here moaning about "Tax payers money" and others about "corporate involvement"...im afraid you cant have it both ways, someone has to pay for it.

So there's going to be a bit of inconvenience for some for a few weeks, something the magnitude of which is unlikely to happen again in any of our lifetimes in our city.

I went to the Athens Olympics and it was an amazing event. Those who weren't bothered about it got pretty swept up in the atmosphere...although of course the guaranteed great weather helped, as was the availability of tickets.

With one obviously big exception the legacy of most of the venues is assured, and clever use has been made of existing iconic venues which will add to the spectacle of the games that much better as well as not having unused stadiums left over as was the case with many past games.

The things that could put a downer on it for me:

- Corporate ticket holders not taking their seats so venues will look half-empty despite there being such high demand from the public

- Terrorism - either an actual attempt or overbearing security

- Too much pressure on UK athletes to perform so too many disappointments

I was ambivalent until I had to work on the promotion of alternative working patterns; methods of transport; alternate sites etc for our Head Office.

After publishing monthly newsletters (which have been neutered and resemble corporate bo**ox now rather than the fun, interesting view of the Olympics before) and various leaflets and maps to go on the permanent stands; answering hundreds of questions, many of them quite stupid ones; being threatened by LOCOG with legal action (not me personally, but my department) for using the London 2012 logo even though we are a Government Department and have provided sites and personnel for them to use during the Games; I f**king hate the Olympics and can’t wait to get them over and done with.

shammy wrote:funny, you get people on here moaning about "Tax payers money" and others about "corporate involvement"...im afraid you cant have it both ways, someone has to pay for it.

No they don't. Either:a) don't have it, my preferred option, orb) use existing infrastructure, no need to spend billions building new stadia.

Just an idea, given all the cuts we've had to make to services up and down the country.

As for corporate involvement, the issue isn't that there are corporate tickets, it's that there are so many of them, particularly when as sponsors they are getting their money back through advertisement, not through free tickets.

For the millions that appear to be going Olympic mad and have booked tickets, taking time off work then I hope they enjoy the experience, as I'm sure it will be a cracking atmosphere in the City at that time.

I also think it has given the country a lift and certainly East London a lift in many ways, as long as no nutters make a statement the positives far outweigh the negatives in my humble.

I very rarely agree with Jeremy Clarkson, but a few years ago he posted about the right for the Country to "have fun". The general gist was that whenever money is spent on sport, the Arts, etc etc, there is always the "well that would have paid for X number of hospital beds". Sometimes, as a collective, we just need to let our hair down and enjoy something...and to hell with the cost.

Even if FIFA was cleared of corruption, we are not going to get a World Cup in many of our lifetimes, and we will certainly not get another Olympic games in this period. It may be a pain, it may cost money, but like the Queen's Jubilee, I am going to enjoy a little respite from the **** which is life.

I'm of the opinion that being as we've paid for it and it's going to happen regardless we may as well get behind it and enjoy it. However the problems are starting, part of my job is delivering and collecting vehicles from Woolwich, this now has to be done either before 7 am or after 7pm as they're having a shoot up on the newly opened range down there.......

funny, you get people on here moaning about "Tax payers money" and others about "corporate involvement"...im afraid you cant have it both ways, someone has to pay for it.

corporate involvement is one thing - an entire populous becoming second class citizens so that McDonalds et al CEO's can be ferried from one part of the city to another without delay is something else.

There is also (shock, horror) the idea of speding what you can actually afford on the games rather than whoring it out to companies with dodgy morals and murky aims.

I'm pretty up for the usual big events - athletics, boxing, judo, gymnastics etc. But I don't imagine I'll find swimming, road cycling, 50k walk or the other suspect events any less boring than I normally do, just because they're being held up the road.

delbert wrote:I'm of the opinion that being as we've paid for it and it's going to happen regardless we may as well get behind it and enjoy it. However the problems are starting, part of my job is delivering and collecting vehicles from Woolwich, this now has to be done either before 7 am or after 7pm as they're having a shoot up on the newly opened range down there.......

The Bulgarian weight lifters are in London already ...or is it the Chinese swimmers or the locals with their guns